On a regular basis we profile various DIY (do it yourself) releases offered for sale on the underground marketplace with the idea to highlight the re-emergence of this concept which allows virtually anyone obtaining the leaked tools, or purchasing them, to launch targeted malware attacks.

Can DIY exploit generating tools be considered as a threat to the market domination of Web malware exploitation kits? What’s the driving force behind their popularity? Let’s find out by profiling a tool that’s successfully generating an exploit (CVE-2013-0422) embedded Web page, relying on malicious Java applets.

More details:

Sample screenshot of the DIY exploit generating tool:

Second screenshot of the DIY exploit generating tools in action:

To use it, a cybercriminal submits a URL and the tool will embeds the exploit based on their preferences. The Web page then functions as a foundation for a successful social engineering attempt. The options provide the ability to choose a URL pointing to a malicious executable, define what happens once the exploitation takes place, and the name of the malicious Java applet.

DIY client-side exploits embedding tools aren’t new however; despite their popularity, they fail to achieve the efficiency levels offered by modern and systematically updated Web malware exploitation kits. What they make fairly easy to accomplish is to empower a potential cybercriminal with an extremely easy to use point’n’click tool, to assist them in targeted malware campaigns.

We’ll continue to monitor the re-emergence of the DIY cybercrime ecosystem market concept, and post updates as soon as new tools and services become available for cybercriminals to take advantage of.